Video camera isolation mounts

[difalkner]

The back story -

A couple of weeks ago our church bought a new camera system for our live Facebook feed and it includes a control panel system for live streaming and 3 new cameras. The cameras mount on rigid steel brackets and two were mounted on columns on the side walls with one on the back wall above the media booth. So the first Sunday morning when these were set up and ready our associate pastor had the pulpit so our pastor could babysit his new 'toy'.

After the first service with choir and piano/organ I asked our pastor how the cameras worked and he was pretty pleased. Then, we had the second service... the one where we have the live band and far more lively music (I play acoustic guitar in the band). Music like bass guitar that can rattle the ceiling tiles. So I asked the pastor how he liked the second service and he was dejected because the two cameras mounted on the side wall columns were vibrating too much to even switch to them. We like our music loud, I guess!!

They added screws into the column mounts, locked everything down, added screws to the cameras, and nothing worked. I told them we need isolation mounts but nobody knew what I was talking about so I didn't push it. I recognized that the problem wasn't the mounts, rather the problem was that the sheetrock around the columns was vibrating and resonating with the music. That meant no matter how hard you locked the cameras and their mounts down they're still going to vibrate. So Monday morning I sent Bro Terry a link to some isolation mounts and asked if he wanted me to make some to which he quickly replied, "Yessssssssssssssssssss!!!" The ones in the link I sent were $500 each, btw.

This will take two posts to get the photos in but basically I drew this in Fusion 360 and cut them out of Baltic Birch since I have tons on hand as cutoffs from all the Longworth chucks I've cut.

Drawing in Fusion 360 -

Plates cut on the CNC. This can easily be done on tablesaw and bandsaw, or with a template and router, etc., but I have the CNC so that's what I used. I also used the CNC to mark where to drill holes for the cable clamps.

 

Plates and cable clamps. I drilled the holes on the drill press and split the pieces on the bandsaw. I could have done this with the CNC but chose to use the other tools instead. I did use the CNC to mark where to drill the holes and cut each piece, though.

 

Cable clamps cut -

 

Gluing the cable clamps in place and using a drill bit for alignment. I had predrilled the plates so this made it easy getting the clamps in the right location.

 

Clamps finished and fixed on the plates -

 

Knobs cut on the CNC. Again, this could be done with a bandsaw but more consistent and much easier on the CNC.

 

Painted flat black to match the brackets and ready for cables -

 

Ok, I'll do another post shortly with the rest of the photos.
David

[difalkner]

I used vinyl covered 3/16" wire rope cables and cut them to about 6" each piece. I cut a spacer to place between the plates for consistency between each camera mount. One side note - I couldn't cut the cable with anything I had so I had to buy a bolt cutter. Even that didn't want to cut this stuff until I realized that when I first cut the vinyl with a razor then the bolt cutter had no problem cutting the wire. In every case it cut all but about two strands and cut those with a cold chisel on my vise anvil. Any project that requires the purchase of a new tool is a good project!!

 

Here you can see the camera mount threaded lock, just like on a tripod –

The top plate where the camera mounts has a floating nut to hold the threaded lock and allow for secure mounting of the camera –

 

Set of three camera isolation mounts (upside down in the photo so they'd sit flat on the table) –

 

Cable close ups –

 

Camera on the column –

  

Close up of camera –

  

Camera with isolation mount. After our first test we realized that 8 cables were too stiff so I took one out of each quadrant.

 

Comparison grabbed from monitor shows how still the view is on the left and how the right one is moving. It was actually worse than this but this is the best I could grab in a video. Also, this was just a CD playing and not the live band which I understand shook the columns much more than the CD.

 

I'd have to say this is a successful project in that a simple, low cost solution, to which I could provide a solution in a couple of days, solved a problem that would have been an ongoing issue. And it was a fun project, too! I had the opportunity to design, engineer, and build something I've never tried and it worked. Hmmmmmm, I wonder if there's a market for these! LOL!

David

[Mick S]

Nice project, David. I think you may get the hang of this CNC thing, yet! 

[Tpt life]

Nice project.
PS, you don’t have to have music particularly loud. The bass frequencies radiate and often find resonant frequencies within a structure.